FIRM Spotlight: CHIRLA comes to Washington

The Washington Post is publishing a series of stories on individuals who are coming to Washington for the inauguration of Barack Obama. Today’s story focuses on Hilda Esteban, a Guatemala immigrant who also happens to be a member of CHIRLA (a member of FIRM).

Esteban will take four vacation days from her hospital cleaning job to see Barack Obama‘s swearing-in ceremony on the U.S. Capitol steps. The January cold does not worry her. This is such a big moment, especially for immigrants, “los immigrantes,” she said, switching from Spanish to English sometimes for emphasis, sometimes to be better understood.

“Yo voy a ir por avion [I am coming by airplane],” she said. She will go someplace she rarely goes, Los Angeles International Airport, where some members of her immigrant advocacy group, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, or CHIRLA, will meet her for the flight.

Esteban is one of the millions of immigrants who will be celebrating a new hope for Just and Humane immigration reform on Wednesday, January 21st. For the full story from the Washington Post, click here. And to learn more about the renewed hope for immigration refor, visit www.ANewDayforImmigration.org.